Well, Joe Riggs is definitly pissed that Josh Rosenthal stopped the fight after he was protecting himself.

“I was hit with one punch the whole fight -- the one he knocked me down with,” Riggs said. “I had my hands covering my head. But it is what it is.”

In a span of 10 seconds after Riggs was knocked down Misaki pounced on him and started raining down punches. Riggs was covering up and none of Misaki's punches were connecting. Rosenthal said he told Riggs to work for a better position three times before he stopped the fight.

IMO, Rosenthal could have waited longer. It didn't really seem like Riggs had enough time to advance his position. Serious, ten seconds! If the shots were landing and he wasn't defending himself that stoppage would be understandable. But Misaki's punches were being blocked. No damage was being done! So I think Riggs definitly got screwed here.

But this is my opinion! What do you think of the stoppage?

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You forget that this isn't just some brutal sport where everyones out to kill each other. Its much more like a game of physical chess.-looney liam

I think the stoppage was early, but at the same time I think its a good lesson that going into turtle mode after getting nailed isnt a good idea.

On one side of the coin you want to let the guys fight and have a blatant winner. On the other side you dont want to see a guy get permanently hurt by letting them take more punishment then they should.

Being a ref in MMA is one of the hardest jobs I think. Every single stoppage is questioned, I could name 5 fights in the last couple of months where people were in an uproar over the decision. It gets to the point where the guys are catching flak all the time and they begin to question what they do when theyre out their doing their job which is never good.

it doesn't even matter to me, the whole fight was lame as hell. how many punches did Joe throw the first round, 6? and of those I think only 1 or 2 connected, along with 1 kick that did no damage. They played fvcking patty-cake for 5 minutes for crying out loud.

what did piss me off was Misakis 3 or 4 strikes to Joes face after the reff had obviously already stopped the fight.

what people dont seem to understand is that a fighter can get beat up, fairly badly sometimes and still be defending himself and the fight should not be stopped. That is part of the sport, when these refs see a guy hurt or getting punched they freak out and jump in too early. Riggs was not unconscious and he was still defending himself. To me there is no way that fight was over, but Rosenthal freaked and jumped in too early.